From the 1980s to late 1990s, television production used multiple video camera technologies in order to minimize production budgets. This method of production, known as the NTSC (or National Television System Committee) format, allowed for lower budgeted programming recorded in either single camera or multicam camera setups. The camera specifications had limitations, especially from a long term archive standpoint.
These systems were based on a R, G, B colorimetry platform (Red, Green, Blue) with a 29.97 frame rate and 525 lines of resolution. In comparison, Modern High Definition techniques have 1080 lines of resolution and run at a speed of 23.98.
To convert NTSC video into Modern High Definition (HD), an “upconversion” process has been used. The “upconversion” process acquires an NTSC signal and simply “upconverts” or “blow ups” the image. This process addressed the dimensions and speed, but not the aliasing and increase of noise in the image. The “upconversion” was popularized in the 1990s when HD was first being sold.